North Korea is mad at Sony Pictures because it made a movie, “The Interview,” about assassinating its leader. President Obama is mad at Sony Pictures because it pulled the release of “The Interview” after North Korea (at which Obama is also angry) allegedly launched a devastating cyberattack against Sony Pictures.
The hacking resulted in the release of some horribly embarrassing emails written by Sony executives, at least some of which included racist stereotyping about President Obama.
North Korea is also angry at President Obama for blaming the cyberattack on the North Korean government, and for his threat to respond “proportionately.” Sony is likely quietly stewing about the embarrassing leaks, the threats and the public reprimands by Obama.
Got all that?
Here it is, spelled out in a little further detail, and including the latest swipes by North Korea towards Obama and Sony and Obama’s against North Korea and Sony.
North Korea denounced Sony Pictures for its studio’s movie “The Interview,” in which a goofball American journalist is asked to, and ultimately does, assassinate North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un. The journalist is played by raunch-king Seth Rogan.
Over the past month, the world watched in fascination and horror as Sony Pictures was hacked, resulting in the public release of extremely embarrassing emails written by Sony executives. The U.S. government blamed the hacking on the North Korean government which allegedly worked through a cyberattack team called the “Guardians of Peace.”
The North Korean National Defense Commission denied its government was responsible for the cyberattack of Sony.
Threats of terrorism on the scale of 9/11 were issued against any public showings of the movie. In response to those threats, film distributors informed Sony they would not show the film in their theaters. Sony decided to pull its scheduled Dec. 25 release of the film.
President Obama criticized Sony for caving in, saying free speech had been sacrificed. He also threatened to “respond proportionately” to the cyberattack. The U.S. president said the attack was “not an act of war,” but instead a very expensive act of “cybervandalism.” This made some Republicans angry, but that’s a different article.
Sony later decided to release the film through various independent distributors, and clips of the film began showing up on the Internet. The North Korean government slammed U.S. President Obama for ultimately “forcing” Sony to move forward and release the film.
On Friday, Dec. 26, Obama said during a press conference that the U.S. was considering placing North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
On Saturday, Dec. 27, the North Korean official state news agency slammed Sony for releasing the film. It called U.S. President Barack Obama the “chief culprit” and claimed Obama forced Sony to “indiscriminately distribute” the picture, according to CNN. The North Korean government also promised to strike back if the U.S. retaliated.
In a CNN interview taped on Friday, Obama again criticized Sony’s decision to pull “The Interview.”
Obama suggested he might have been able to help address had Sony come to him. “You know, had they talked to me directly about this decision, I might have called the movie theater chains and distributors and asked them what that story was,” he said.
Sony’s CEO responded by saying that he spoke to a senior White House adviser about the situation before Sony announced the decision. White House officials said Sony did discuss cybersecurity with the federal government, but that the White House was not consulted on the decision not to distribute the film.
“Sometimes this is a matter of setting a tone and being very clear that we’re not going to be intimidated by some, you know, cyberhackers,” Obama said. “And I expect all of us to remember that and operate on that basis going forward.”
